Acadia Pharma raises $86.4M to push PhIII Parkinson's program

Acadia Pharmaceuticals ($ACAD) has capitalized on a rejuvenated stock price with an $86.4 million financing deal that will pay for a Phase III confirmatory study of its hot candidate pimavanserin in Parkinson's disease. The developer's stock jumped 10.16% to $4.88 late this morning after news of the private placement of shares for $4.43 per share that is expected to close Dec. 17.

The San Diego-based biotech landed comeback results last month for use of pimavanserin to combat psychosis in Parkinson's patients, and the company's stock price is up 124.6% over the past month. It was a big turn of events for a program that former partner Biovail ditched after an unexpected response in patients on placebo during a late-stage study in 2009.

Acadia's increased financial firepower gives the company resources to continue its journey with pimavanserin, an oral 5-HT2A receptor inverse agonist. And as CEO Uli Hacksell told FierceBiotech's John Carroll last month, the company has no plans to partner with another company on development of pimavanserin, which has shown evidence of potential benefits for patients with Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia in earlier studies.

The more valuable pimavanserin might become, the more Acadia could reap the rewards of going it alone in the clinic and not sharing the risks and rewards with a pharma partner.

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